What's wrong with the Bears?

It's all about teaching and coaching. It's not the talent that is the problem. At the NFL level, you have the world's top 1800 athletes. They are faster, quicker, stronger than any other athletes anywhere. There is no comparison. Not even NBA players can match the vertical jumps that NFL players can jump. NFL players are the most explosive, most powerful, fastest players anywhere.

It's all about coaching. How does a team like Miami and Atlanta go from awful in 2007, to winning their divisions and going to the playoffs in 2008?

The Bears need coaching and teaching in the worst way possible. It's not enough to assemble great athletes. You have to train them, teach them, and put them in position to use their God-given talent. Kyle Orton said in September 2009 that he has learned more in the last 4 months in Denver than he has his last 4 years with the Bears. That is sad. Players need coaching and teachers. Mike Nolan loves teaching and he has turned Denver's defense from worst to first in one year. McDaniels and Nolan stress the ability to teach on their staffs. That's what Chicago needs.

If you watch the offense, the defense, the special teams.... Chicago lacks discipline, loses gap control, is in the wrong gap, the WR, OL, and QB are never on the same page. They aren't taking advantages of defenses weaknesses, they look pedestrian. They need teaching, scheming and coaching!

Urlacher!
Just shut up, Brian! Stop criticizing Jay Cutler. Urlacher should be in the film room teaching the rookie linebackers and defensive players what to look for and how to break down film. Criticizing the QB play at this time serves no purpose. Just shut up!

Broncos
The Broncos are back to playing Bronco football like they were the first few weeks of the season. The Defense is back. This team can't be beat if they play like that. Denver has already beaten nearly all the current division leaders and playoff teams (Cincy, Dallas, New England, San Diego). Orton staying healthy is huge, and they need him in every way. When he came back into the San Diego game, he drove down the field with two pass plays and had us in position to comeback. His two passes to Marshall against Washington were priceless (as were the catches). Denver's remaining schedule includes KC twice, Oak, Indy and Philly. Certainly winnable games. Will we beat Indy in Denver? I think so, it may end up being Indy's only loss. 

Saints
We are watching something magnificent! I mean magical. You only see this type of play once or twice per decade. The San Francisco 49ers did this in the late 80s and once with Steve Young in the 90s, the Ram's Greatest Show on Turf did this in 1999-2000, the 2007 Patriots, and now the 2009 Saints. Extremely impressive offense, with a defense that leads the league in takeaways. And they are doing it with authority! This defense is aggressive and punishing. They punished Wes Welker on those two catches. TWO! He had only two catches!

They lost a lot of starters in the secondary, but still managed to find guys to play and fill in (similar to what we used to pride new england for). Greg Williams on Defense and Sean Payton on offense, with Drew Brees and a bunch of 6th round pick WRs is amazingly electric! We are a witness to history. This is the best team in the NFL and will be in the Super Bowl.

Playoff Picture
In the NFC it looks like the Vikings and Saints will be the top two teams. The rest are pretty bad. There s huge disparity between the halves and havenots. The Saints are very difficult to beat at home and that Superdome is electric, loud, and tough to play in. The rest of the teams in the NFC are second fiddle. Teams with a decent chance are Arizona and Dallas if they can get a home game and things go their way. Philly is really the only other NFC team that looks playoff worthy.

The AFC is more muddy. There isn't such huge separation between the good and the bad. There are a lot of good teams. The AFC championship will likely end up being between Indy and Cincy. Other strong contenders include New England, Denver, and San Diego. (Note: Denver has beaten all of them). Anything can happen with the playoffs. All you need is a chance. Any of these teams can end up being the AFC representative in the Super Bowl, it just depends on what happens with the playoffs. Other teams that can still make it with a strong push include Pitt and Baltimore,. But it's probably unlikely that three teams make it from the AFC North. Go Broncos!

My week 2 update is in! (Yes, I watch all the games, this is a very educated weekly column!)

Denver:
DEFENSE! No 2 in yards allowed! Third in sacks! Fifth in interceptions! Tied for second in takeaways! And NUMBER ONE in Points allowed! The only category that counts! Denver is allowing only 6.5 points per game! Wow! All hail Mike Nolan!

That is a huge change! Our defense for the past few years could not stop anyone! Ever! This is much better and best in the NFL.

The offense looked much better. Offense is fourth overall in yards per game and 8th overall in scoring! Not quite the No 2 ranking we had last year, but everyone is learning a new system and it will get better and better!

Denver is still running a 5-2 defense that is extremely attacking and aggressive. They don't wait to see what offenses are doing! They go after the offense and try to dictate! Awesome!

The idiots in the mass media try to say, "Well, they only played Cincy and Cleveland!" These same idiots are the ones that predicted Denver to win only 3 games! Good luck with that prediction. The idiots in the mass media just repeat a few blurbs they heard. Their job is to incite conflict and get people mad. Their job is not to really know much, but pretend to. "Denver will be lucky to win three games this year after all the off season turmoil."

Next up is Oakland. They had a strong emotional showing against SD in week 1 and nearly beat them. In week 2 they sucked hard, but beat an equally awful KC team. When we win we will be 3-0 and still on top! All you have to do is win your division!

We put up 27 poits in week 2 and the offense looked much better and more fluid. Moreno and Buckhalter looked great. The WRs did their jobs, no serious dropped passes like week 1. Looks like that have adjusted well.

Go Broncos!

Saints:
Still look amazing! Wow! If only I had drafted Brees with my 4th overall pick on my fantasy team, I'd be undefeated! I regret that! They really have something special going on! It really is history in the making. Watch any NO games you can see, because years from now, you can say, "I watched them play." And their defense leads the league in interceptions, they already have 6! That's pretty impressive, considering their pass rush.

Giants:
What wide receivers? So, they clearly have addressed their WR issues and look really good. Anyone that has been following their training camp and preseason should have known this. But of course, the idiot media heads on ESPN never do. (I stopped watching ESPN many years ago..... thank god for NFL network.... I don't even have any other channels). Manningham has been a pleasant surprised. Once again, it's not straight ahead speed that matters, but rather your actual skill set.

Patriots:
Their offensive line has been woeful and it's starting to show. Their defense has lost a lot of players. I don't think they are washed up. Belicheck will have them ready and in a few weeks they will be back in form. For now, it's going to be a rough start.

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I'll try to do weekly thoughts and observations after every week in the NFL. It's a lot of fun! Since I watch every game, I might as well.

Denver:
The "D" is back in enver. For the past three year the enver Broncos have had no defense. The D is back in Denver. Mike Nolan has brought an aggressive, energetic, and violent approach to defense. The talent is also hugely upgraded. DJ Williams, Champ Baily are the only real starting holdovers from last year. The grueling training camp that McDaniels ran will put the defense in better position to keep playing in the fourth quarter and into December and January. Shanahan never drove the players this hard, and the groin/hamstring injuries added up. These injuries will no longer happen now that are players are being worked and trained hard.

FOr 59 minutes and 20 seconds we held the high-powered Cincinatti offense to 0 points. Zero points! Wow!

The front 7 is mostly in a 5-2 look. Making the offensive line guess who is coming and who is dropping out. Their goal is to stop the run, and we limited the run to only 90 yards. Our d-line gave Cincy's huge offensive line trouble, and they wore down as the game went on. Our guys were phenomenal!

Sacks? Interceptions? FINALLY! Denver has not had a pash rush for three years! We finally have one, and the sacks were coming as well. We ended the day with 3 sacks and 2 interceptions. I really liked the play of Alphonso Smith (rookie). We gave up a first round pick next year for him, and damn he was worth it. Of all our rookies, he is the best so far! Phenomenal play! Haggan and Woodyard were also impressive at the LB position.

A lot of the commentators during the broadcast and afterwards were saying, "What we are watching here is two really bad teams." I disagree. Cincy has a potent offense. They would march up and down the field, then our defense would get a nice stop. Cincy's offnese has a lot of toys. They can run, they can pass, they have the entire package. They are going to win a lot of games this year and surprise people. I don't think they are a "really bad" team.

When you talk to a lot of our defensive players, they are excited about our defense. We are no longer a "read and react" defense, waiting for the offense to dictate to us what we could do. Our defense now wants to be aggressive and dictate to the offense what they can and can't do. This is a huge change. In 2005, our defense held opposing offenses to zero touchdowns through nearly half the year, but mostly by a read and react philosophy. We ended up 13-3 that year, hosted the AFC Championship Game and beat Brady's Patriots in the playoffs. But then lost to Pitt at home. Our defense now will not allow an opposing offense to get going. This is a new philosophy. Mike Nolan's defenses have always led the NFL in turnovers, and so far so good.

So far our defense is ranked 4th overall in interceptions, we are tied for second in poits allowed, and we had no turnovers. That is a huge change! Overall, I like what I see on the defensive side.

Special teams coverage units did well, but our return units need to get us better field position. I am sure we will fingure this out.

Our offense sputtered. We finally got things figured out in the fourth quarter, which was a relief. I think people don't realize that Orton is playing with 15 stitches in his index finger. That is the most important finger, and it hurts to squeeze the ball. I can't imagine how painful that must be. Some of his passes were off, but I am sure a healthy hand will be better. Even with the injured hand, he was still able to zip the ball around. The WRs dropped too many balls. Last year we were third in the league in dropped balls. That needs to be cleaned up. A lot of times it looked like the ball hit the WR with too much zip, or they weren't expecting it, and they dropped it. They know it, and they all said they will clean that up.

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